Mad about Timber. School Activities

Transcription

1 Mad about Timber School Activities

2 MAD ABOUT TIMBER - Summary A number of activities related to the trees in the Wyre Forest and, exploring the different uses of timber. Downloadable Resource Worksheet Activity Worksheet Curriculum area Unit Where When Link to Wyre education programme 4a-c Variation and classification: Indoors/Outdoors All year KS2 Plants in the Forest KS3 Sustainability 1a Grouping and classifying materials: comparing everyday materials All units 2g Changing materials: Burning Mad about Timber 1 All sitting down KS2 SCIENCE - Sc2 Life processes and living things KS2 SCIENCE - Sc3 Materials and KS2/3 DESIGN TECHNOLOGY KS2 Living History KS3 Forest Issues KS3 Sustainability Indoors/Outdoors All year POST VISIT 2g-i Changing materials: Chemical reactions 5a Energy resouces and energy transfer: Energy resources 7 Local history study 2a-e Knowledge and understanding of events, people and changes in the past 3a-e Speaking and listening: Group discussion and interaction 1b Grouping and classifying materials: Thermal insulators 2c Changing materials: Temperature 4a-c Variation and classification: 5b-c Living things in their environment: Adaptation 5b-c Living things in their environment: Adaptation and competition All units 2 Barmy BBQ KS2 SCIENCE - Sc3 Materials and KS3 SCIENCE - Sc3 Materials and KS3 SCIENCE - Sc4 Physical processes KS2 HISTORY KS3 HISTORY KS3 ENGLISH KS2 Animals in the Forest KS3 Temperate Woodlands Outdoors All year POST VISIT 3 Nature s insulators KS2 SCIENCE Sc3 Materials and Image of Teachers Guide KS2 Plants in the Forest KS3 Temperate Woodlands KS3 Sustainability Indoors All year PRE/POST VISIT KS2 SCIENCE Sc2 Life processes and living things KS3 SCIENCE Sc2 Life processes and living things KS2/3 DESIGN TECHNOLOGY 4 What trees do for us KS3 SCIENCE Sc2 Life processes and living things 3a-e Green plants and organisms: Nutrition, growth and respiration 5a-d Living things in their environment: Adaptation and competition 5a-c Energy resources and energy transfer: Energy resources 4 Knowledge and understanding of patterns and processes: Erosion, flooding 5 Knowledge and understanding of environmental change and sustainable development: Managing woodlands 4a-c Knowledge and understanding of materials KS3 SCIENCE Sc4 Physical processes KS2 GEOGRAPHY KS2 DESIGN TECHNOLOGY

3 MAD ABOUT TIMBER - Worksheet 1 Activity - All sitting down This activity is a team race to build a chair from a set of instructions and some basic materials. The first team to complete the chair and sit down wins. This will be a great team building excercise and will bring out leadership skills and delegation skills as well as abilities to follow instructions. Whilst completing the activity they will learn if timber is easy to work with and discover its strengths and possible weaknesses. For instructions and photos look at this website. Alternatively, ask students to design their own based on these ideas. You will need: Pallets pre-stripped for timber planks and de-nailed. A printout of the photos and instructions from the website above (for each team) Materials and tools as laid out in the instructions (for each team) Holes to be pre-drilled An area large enough for each team to work Divide group into teams of approx 5-7 and give them their drawings, instructions, materials and tools. Start the race. The first team to finish building the chair and have one person sitting in it with the rest of the team sitting on the floor wins. Post game: The chair design that they built is very basic. How could this be strengthened? What timber has been used to construct it? What might be a better choice of timber for strength? Find a timber that would work for an external chair. Can you design and build another chair using only collected fallen branches and twigs and a roll of string? Follow this link to Wyre trees and their uses to find out more about timber and its uses. For some other ideas on recycling pallets look at this website

4 MAD ABOUT TIMBER - Worksheet 2 Activity - Barmy BBQ Wyre and Charcoal Charcoal burning was a traditional craft, vital to substantial parts of the Midlands economy. Between 1700 and 1900, the Wyre Forest was a major centre of production. Charcoal was used as a fuel in several regional industries using techniques which had not changed for centuries. Further research the British charcoal industry. As a group, discuss the pros and cons of reviving the charcoal industry in Wyre. BBQ Facts tonnes of charcoal is burnt on British barbecues each year. Much of this charcoal comes from Tropical Forests and endangered Mangrove Swamps in South East Asia. For the small extra cost of British Charcoal not only do you help wildlife but you get charcoal that is easier to light, quick to heat and with food as the only additive not firelighters! What is charcoal? Charcoal is made by heating wood in the absence of oxygen. Its use in Europe can be traced back 5500 years and was important for many needs such as gunpowder and the smelting of metals. In 1709 the Darby Brothers discovered how to use coal, which was cheaper than charcoal, to smelt steel and since then in Europe charcoal has been used mainly for barbecues. Why buy British? If only half of the annual tonnes demand for barbecue charcoal came from British Woodlands, instead of 5%, this would provide the financial incentive for the better care of ha of Ancient Woodland. You would also get better quality charcoal as the wood from the British trees used is typically less dense than that used for imported charcoal. This means it is far easier to light and quicker to get the heat up for cooking. Lighting the BBQ Roll up enough newspaper to cover the base of the barbecue then thinly cover with British charcoal. Set the paper alight and once the charcoal has properly caught fire add further charcoal so as to create a bed of hot glowing coals over which you cook the food. It will take 10-15mins to get to full heat. Buying Local Charcoal Charcoal is often sold at local stores garages, shops and garden centres. A number of the major garden centres and DIY stores stock British charcoal, but it is often tucked away!

5 Make your own charcoal This activity must be carried out under the supervision of an adult The Wyre Forest has been used for hundreds of years to make charcoal: partly burned or cooked wood that could be used as a fuel for really hot fires (perhaps to make pottery or for smelting iron). The secret is to exclude oxygen from the burn so that water and impurities are driven out of the wood by the heat to leave almost pure carbon. Charcoal burners or wood colliers would have made their charcoal hearths near streams so that they could douse the clamps of wood if flames threatened to break out and burn up the charcoal. You can make some charcoal on a small scale not enough for a barbecue but enough to draw with! You will need: A metal syrup tin A hammer and nail Oven glove Camp fire Willow twigs Cut some small willow twigs that will just fit into the tin and peel off their bark. Put them in the tin. Don t fill it too tightly. Make a hole in the lid of the tin with the hammer and nail, then fit it in the tin. Let the camp fire die down so that you have a good bed of hot embers. Put the tin on the fire and heap the embers over it. The twigs will start to cook in the tin, giving off smoke that will escape from the hole. DON T BREATHE IN THIS SMOKE! Rotate the tin now and then so that all the twigs cook evenly. When the smoke stops escaping plug the hole in the lid with a blob of clay. Poke the tin out of the fire with a stick and allow it to cool (about half an hour). Open the tin (remember DON T BREATHE IN!) and see how well you have made your charcoal. Reproduced with permission of Birmingham Libraries and Archives.

6 MAD ABOUT TIMBER - Worksheet 3 Activity - Nature s insulators This activity teaches pupils about the insulating properties of different materials. It then links this to the wildlife of the Wyre Forest to explain how they use these insulating properties to keep warm. Collect the following: A piece of rock A piece of wood A pile of leaves Recycled paper Fur, hair or feathers Answer the following: Which feels warmest to the touch? Leave in the sun for a few minutes or place under a lamp Which warms up the most? Which retains its heat the longest? Follow this link to Wyre wildlife spotter sheets Look at these images. How does the Wyre wildlife use the insulating properties of these materials? Build a nest As a group you have 15 minutes to collect fallen/recycled materials that you find and 30 minutes to build your own nest. Try to make it as warm as possible. Explain why you are adding particular materials. Add shiny objects to turn it into a Magpie nest? If you were a bird where would you build this nest and why?

7 MAD ABOUT TIMBER - Worksheet 4 Activity - What trees do or provide for us This simple paper based activity highlights the importance of trees as a resource for timber, and as part of the carbon cycle. Students are required to draw branches on the tree to link to a resource, and also to come up with ideas of their own. Draw branches to the words: shade toys telegraph poles shelter buildings furniture wildlife habitat carbon storage windbreak paper remove pollutants from air oxygen musical instruments firewood/fuel pencils match sticks material (viscose) broom and tool handles nuts fruit remove CO2 from the air reduce flooding fence panels Add your own words too!